Bear opens 8 car doors in Colorado town in 1 night. The New Mileage Tax.

This weekly column is a collection of short snippets: practical self-sufficiency items, how-tos, lessons learned, tips and tricks, and news items — both from readers and from SurvivalBlog’s editors. We may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters.

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We’ll start with this advice on growing peppers, from Sean B.:

“Although I have been saving seeds from my garden vegetables and fruits for more than five years now, this year I am harvesting the result of a rookie mistake I made last year. Not knowing that bell peppers and jalapeno peppers can cross-pollinate, my bell pepper seeds from last year are now growing a hybrid and my jalapeno seeds from last year have very poor germination and low survivability in the plants. My hybrid bell pepper/jalapeno plants are now growing what looks like a very large jalapeno, that is spicier than a bell pepper, but not spicy enough to be a “hot” pepper. They also don’t have the nice thick fleshy fruit wall we expect from a bell pepper. So, although the hybrid is edible, it is closer to a “worst of both worlds” combination.

Next year I will either have to try growing my saved two-year-old bell pepper and jalapeno seeds (collected before the cross-pollination), or buy new seeds. A reminder to the seed savers out there, if you are not doing it already, keep similar plants far enough apart to prevent cross-pollination. Also, each year, pack away some “just in case” seeds so if something goes south, you have some 2-year old seeds as a backup. Were this year’s harvest happening during a TEOTWAWKI scenario, these “worst of both worlds” peppers would be a very unpleasant surprise.”

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While they scare you with “variants,” Congress wants to make dietary supplements prescription only. (Thanks to Jim L., for the link.)

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Lily directed me to this, over at Gateway Pundit: Bill Gates Smiles When Suggesting the Nonvaccinated Should Be Withheld Their Social Security Benefits. JWR’s Comment: Most evil people have difficultly concealing the depth of their evil intent.

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Reader L.H. recommended this, from The Freeholder blog: Creeping Big Brotherism.

Regular content contributor C.B. sent us this: Bear opens 8 car doors in Colorado town in 1 night: ‘Lock all your windows and doors’.

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“Mr. X.” sent this link and comment:

Watch these A-10 attack aircraft make history by operating from a US highway for the first time.

His comment:

“This is literally 3 miles (by gravel road) from my house. [Some deleted, for OPSEC.]

The pic of the intersection is Herron Rd. and (Michigan Highway) M-32. I live in the very small town of Herron, Mi. We have one of three Combat Readiness Training Centers (CRTCs) in the U.S. here in Alpena, Mi. (4 miles distance from my house as another crow flies…) Many locals couldn’t fathom the idea of why the Air Force was not only closing down the main byway into/out of town for 5 hours+/-, but couldn’t comprehend the thought of training by landing on a (paved) highway in the U.S…. I politely informed them that not all countries involved in war and/or conflicts have runways, airports or airstrips but most have light traffic type paved roads and that this was a very good training lesson for landing on a small remote paved road, linking up with your fuel tankers and armament trucks (along with various security teams), refueling, rearming and getting the planes back into the fight to support the ground troops.”

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LT. Mike sent this letter:

James,

In reply to the article about using Bitcoin for prepping storage use I object on the grounds of principles. Thou shall not murder; one of the ten commandments. That is a principle laid down by God to prevent mayhem … but it happens anyway. It doesn’t make murder acceptable in the eyes of God, forgivable maybe but never acceptable. So we enact laws to put consequences on murders, which because of the illegitimacy of most labels of “government” today are ignored. But murder is still a violation of a Godly principle that is still essential to the freedom, liberty, and peace of a civilized society.

The inclusion in our federal Constitution of the mandate of the States of the union making ONLY gold or silver coin (ROUNDS) as tender for the payment of debts is a Godly principle that has never been amended in accordance with article five of the Constitution. To my knowledge there has never been an attempt to amend that clause. Therefore gold and silver coin (rounds) alone are the only form of payment that should be in any preppers storage. Bitcoin (any venue of it) may have some unique features but it is still NOT acceptable in my book because it violates the principle that our founders wisely placed in our supreme law of the land. Besides, it is going to disappear and be useless after the massive EMP attack that is certain to happen in the closing phase of the world order banksters attack on the US of A and the world economy. You can be certain that in TEOTWAWKI and someone wants to barter some beans with me using a digital “coin” they are sure a shell going to be very hungry since myself and most others are not going to want this so called coin, and also not have access to any form of internet or network to get it in possession … try holding it in one hand and gold in the other see which one is more acceptable.

James Madison said our Constitution was made for a Christian people, it will not work for any other. Anything that violates the principles of the document should be looked upon as anathema and shunned in every manner possible. Bitcoin has promoted the sector of fiat currency to a very high level, not unlike tulip bulbs did a few centuries ago … and it has encouraged the use of a fiat currency by the exchange of one form of “phunny money” for another by way of speculation and market manipulation.

We the people are directly responsible for the downfall of our Republic because of our ignorance of our responsibilities as ordinators of government in this Republic; we hold the power to abolish such tomfooleries, yet in our ignorance fail to use that power. This is why I struggling for years to build up markets for the necessary items any prepper should be buying, beans, bullets, band aids … in gold and in silver. I have a network of folks who raise chickens, bees, grains, other commodities and such and many items that up here in teh arctic will be totally unavailable in TEOTWAWKI due to our supply chain limitations, and the weather / climate issue we face. The only thing we will have going for us is our faith n God, but how then can we expect God to bless our faith if we fail to heed his principles, especially in our system of exchange, gold and silver currency?

There is much to be learned from this principle ( the gold and silver currency) and the demise of the Continental, due to its fiat nature, taught our founders a lot about the vital importance of having such written into our Constitution; God help those of us who have never learned of it, or ignore it, or are deluded into thinking we can bypass it?

As for Roosevelts so called Executive Order; since when can an executive order or any so called act of congress amend the Constitution? What pray tell has happened to article five of that document? I say screw the bastards, tar & feather was too nice. 7.62 NATO is a better solution and for more permanent in impressing the minds and hearts of those who would wish ill to our Republic.

Just one old fart’s thoughts, my oath was to the Constitution not to some BS artist poly-tick, nor to a party, but only to God as my supreme commander.

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And Lenny offered this pithy response to the same Bitcoin article:

“Won’t stop crypto. People already pay taxes on losses, gains. This will impact PoS and dev developers and validators. They’ll move OCONUS taking jobs and revenue elsewhere. The U.S. will be left behind “

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Some practical advice, over at American Partisan: Weapon Tie Downs: Starving The Green Monster.

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Brandon Smith: We Will Not Comply: A Campaign Against Medical Tyranny.

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Reader J.B. wrote to ask:

Hi James,

I have a question on precious metals. I used to buy silver dollar culls, they were just over spot silver, but the coin shop that was near where I worked in Boston closed. I do save all my nickels on your advice and have a few containers full so far. My question is about copper. It was always the 3rd and most common metal. Gold/Silver/Copper. I picked up a roll of copper ounce coins that are modeled after the silver eagle. They are not US Mint coins, but they state “one ounce .999 pure copper”. There were 20 ounces [in the roll] for about $38.

I have read a lot of people think these copper rounds are junk, but I think they would be perfect if you were going to buy a loaf of bread, or a few fishing hooks. A Silver dime would be too much. You could use nickels but I don’t think people think of nickel as we do. Copper on the other hand is common, and people know about its value from people scrapping it, and stealing copper pipes out of houses.

Do you think its worth keeping some on hand? I know we can always barter rimfire rounds, but I would prefer to keep all mine. A few copper rounds might be better.

I love your blog, that and the weather are the first two things I look at every day I log on to go to work.

JWR’s Reply:

J.B.:

Absolutely not! That is a bad investment. Nickels are composed of 75% copper and 25% nickel. A roll of nickels weighs 4.41 ounces. Again, 75% of that is copper and 25% is nickel. So you get 3.31 Troy ounces of copper in a $2 roll of nickels. So for the same $38 investment that you mentioned, instead of 20 ounces of copper, with nickels you would get 62.89 ounces of Copper and 22.05 ounces of Nickel. And you can always spend nickels at face value, if need be. – JWR

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Video: Why the US Army issued infantry more pistols.

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Reader M.J. shared these observations:

“My father is from Lebanon; I’ve been there a few times. My last visit was in 2018. So articles on Lebanon hit home for me.

Here’s another article: https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/lebanons-economy-quickly-collapsing-amid-hyperinflation-power-outages

What scares me is that the United States is turning into a big version of Lebanon. The difference is that our split is on political and racial lines instead of religious lines. We have crumbling infrastructure and a dysfunctional government that is bent on inflating the dollar to death and calling it “quantitative easing.” Questioning the mask-and-vaccine push is bad, yet vagrancy, homelessness, riots, and public use of drugs are just fine. Sheesh.

My father came from a village in the Bekaa Valley where people practice some of the traditional methods of long-term food preparation and storage that would today be called prepping. I wish I had learned some of those methods when I visited during my younger years; but unfortunately, I was a city slicker who hadn’t yet caught the prepping bug.

Again, many thanks for all the good work you do for us. You have done more for our people than any politician.”

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Eric Peters: How the New Mileage Tax Will Get Your Old Car Off the Road.

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Trevor sent this:

“I write to you today to share some successes, some setbacks and also a video that I stumbled across that needs to be shared. First, the video: This is from a YouTube channel from Academy of Ideas/ After Skool. I cannot speak of what their other videos are like, but this one on how an entire population suffers from a mental psychosis is very informative and very well produced.

Secondly, I would like to share with you and the blog readers my progress report:

Originally, we had entered into a verbal agreement with an elderly friend to purchase her homestead, around 4 acres with house barn and established orchard, gardens, etc. She had recently been widowed and was not able to maintain the place. We offered to help her with mowing, clean up, planting and harvesting. This went well for the first season, but during the second, she decided that she wasn’t ready to move into town and wanted to stay on the place. We had and still have first right of refusal, but it looks like she will be there for quite some time to come. During that period, my paternal grandmother passed away at the ripe age of 94 and left what was left of the original family homestead to my father. My father, being in his mid-60s was not particularly interested in having to maintain 2 houses, 2 wells, and around 6 acres of land that was 3 hours away. He first offered the homestead to my uncle, but his wife is in the later stages of a neurological illness and he wasn’t interested in the extra work either. My uncle suggested that my dad pass the place onto me, as I am the only grandchild that ever showed any interest in it to begin with, while my other uncles, aunts, and cousins would have just as soon sold the land and foolishly spent the returns from it.

That brings us to the present. My wife and two teenage sons have been heroically waking at 4:30 on Saturday mornings so we can make the drive to the homestead, working during the morning hours while it is still cool, taking a break during the heat of the day and then returning home after dark, repeating this every 2 to 3 weeks. We have been able to get the yard under control around the houses and outbuildings. Fell several cedar trees that were on the verge of getting out of control, along with an errant cottonwood that had decided to grow dangerously close to the power lines. This was accomplished over 2 separate visits, as the first time, my chainsaw would not start. I had a sore arm for a week afterwards trying to get it to kick over. After a thorough inspection of the machine, it fired up on the first pull once back home. My only thought was God didn’t intend for me to cut down those trees at that time, and who am I to argue with that! We have plotted out an area to begin an orchard, and next weekend will be working and amending the soil in the planting locations with plenty of compost, manure and wood shavings to prepare those spots for tree planting in the spring. We constructed two raised beds at my shop, and will be transporting them as well, with the intention to plant and overwinter garlic in one.

I started 50 Ponderosa Pine tree seeds in our small Aerogarden. 35 of the 50 germinated and 29 of the 35 are now two to three inches tall. They will be pulled from the seed starting trays and transplanted into a tree seedling bed in my shop for the winter. I have 50 or so Ponderosa Pine seeds remaining, 150 Eastern and 150 Western White pine seeds as well. These will be transplanted to form a windbreak when they are mature enough to survive. We have been watching the pin oak and linden trees in our yard for when they drop their acorns and seed pods respectively, hoping to grow several descendants of them at the homestead as well.

We are continuing to store up for the inevitable rainy day. Ordered 500 pounds of hard red winter wheat and 1,000 pounds of feed corn to repackage into mylar and buckets to continue building our multi-year reserves.

We would like to get a building site prepared for a 3 car garage, and hopefully form up and pour the footings and slab for it before winter. Not sure if this is going to happen or not, but would be quite pleased if we were able to begin construction on the garage once the weather breaks in February or March. Having a solid floored place to work out of the weather, as well as a secure place to store tools and equipment, will make life a little easier, as currently, I have to haul our two mowers along with trimmers, chainsaw, ax, tools, gas, oil, etc, with me every time we go down.

Ultimately, my wife and I plan to move there permanently, but would like for our boys to finished their schooling in our current location. The rural school district we are in has bucked the system and refuses to teach or even acknowledge the Marxist propaganda and divisive teachings of CRT and identity politics, to the point that my boys are learning from the same textbooks that I used when I was in school 25 years ago. This has to be one of the few school districts that hasn’t bowed to the pressure of the national stage, and as long as they stay on this path, I am proud that our children are being taught by the same people that attend church with us.”

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Reader Jim L. spotted this, over at Cool Tools: Hand Pumped Hydraulic Log Splitter.

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G. Smith in Canada wrote:

“As a medical professional from Canada, I can state that the vaccination rates amongst Canadian Military who have received both “Shots”, and are now considered, “Fully Vaccinated”, are at 93%-to-96% — a fairly firm approximation. This figure is derived from ground-level statistics, as well as speaking with members from other units. I believe this percentage is roughly correct.

I am dismayed that so many healthy people have allowed their health to be jeopardized to this degree.”

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And lastly: Semi-Auto Belt Feds – Useful Tools or Range Toys?